Miracle Goodnights
by Silberias
Summary: Series of 50 KakaSaku drabbles. Will range from humor, drama, to fluff. If the rating changes, it'll change.
1. Hero

This is part of a 50 Prompts challenge I picked up somewhere, for KakaSaku. For those of you who are reading _Samurai and the Oni Girl_, the next update will be on September 5th. For now, enjoy!

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><p><strong>Hero<strong>

He just hung back, watching his girlfriend Sakura and semi-adopted little brother Naruto beat their opponents into the ground—literally—one of those guys had his temporal lobe squished out into the grass. Kakashi smiled widely beneath his mask when Sakura turned towards him, flushed and happy from victory.

"So they're done for."

"Which makes you two?"

"Big damn heroes, Sir."

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	2. Sacred

Because I'm obsessed with these two having babies. For serious.

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><p><strong>Sacred<strong>

The time he spent at the cenotaph was sacred to him, Sakura knew that well enough. The time he would spend with her, however, was of an entirely more important level. It was because of this that he skipped his normal morning appointment with the memorial stone one day, choosing to spend those hours with her at the first of many pre-natal check-ups.

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	3. Run

Just so everyone knows: These will all be of varying lengths, varying "universes," and not part of a larger, coherent story _at all_. So don't review like they are, okay?

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><p><strong>Run<strong>

Kakashi had started to go running with Sakura when Naruto left once again—this time to gather information on his mother's heritage, searching the world for others who traced their lines back to Whirlpool. His absence was taken hard by Sakura and Kakashi elected to show her that she was not alone by training with her when he could. Mostly they just ran for several hours every morning, sparring every few days.

Well, Kakashi held back to wait for Sakura early on until she decided he was holding back because she was a girl. To be sure, Kakashi didn't hold back from the all-out sprint for his life when she felt her delicate pride being insulted in such a manner.

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	4. Memory

Basically just biding my time for another two hours so I can upload Samurai and pretend that it's two weeks XD

Enjoy!

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><p><strong>Memory<strong>

Brain injuries were touchy, and it was amazing that Naruto took _time_ to heal from his. Sakura liked to reminisce about how her blonde friend greeted their former Sensei and herself after waking from a few days' coma. He'd looked between Sakura checking his vitals at his temple, to Kakashi leaning with his elbows on the bed, and very simply concluded they were his parents.

The amnesia had only lasted a few days, but much hilarity had ensued. Pictures were taken, at Kakashi's insistence, and their "son" was taken around the village on excursions to entertain him. He'd come-to a second time when Sakura had been trying to get him to wear a froggy hat that she was insisting he wore every day without complaint.

The thing is, Kakashi and Sakura had decided they liked playing house together and even though Naruto had recovered they never quite ended the relationship he'd assumed of them when he'd been ill.

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	5. Silk

And this is Bosslady River Approved, so you know it's good!

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><p><strong>Silk<strong>

Sakura had said the intense grip their son displayed was a natural reflex that infants possessed, all the while grinning madly as Kazuhiko's fist latched at Kakashi's mask and pulled it halfway down his face, reeling his father in by the cloth covering. His hair, a lighter pink than Sakura's, stuck up from his head like Kakashi's.

Kakashi wondered if the boy would take after him as he grew older—with thick, sturdy hair—or Sakura's still downy-soft hair. He held his son carefully, supporting his head as he nuzzled his nose against the infant's creamy cheek before looking into the swiftly-darkening blue eyes which stared up at him, trying to focus past his fascination.

His wife—he'd made an honest woman of her four days after she'd told him he was going to be a father—stood gingerly from the bed, wrapping their sheet around herself as she made her way across the room to him and his son. Looking her up and down for a moment, Kakashi was glad for the changes her body had gone through in the months she'd been pregnant—her hair was full and flowing, and as vividly pink as he could ever remember it. There were curves on her that no other kunoichi would be proud of, but Sakura fit even better against him with them—she was soft, silky, like their infant son.

And, as he stood in their small apartment holding his son with his wife leaning against him, Kakashi was smart enough to tamp down the urge to mention how wonderful it felt to be the one providing for the three of them. He liked his nose where it was, thank you.

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	6. Midnight

For a very certain sensei's birthday in a few hours on the 15th.

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><p><strong>Midnight<strong>

Sakura's watch was set to beep minutely at the top of each hour—otherwise she often lost track of time in her research, training, or healing. The tiny sound she'd trained herself to hear woke her up—the watch was somewhere in her discarded clothing, it seemed. One, two, three, four—what time is it anyway, she thought briefly—five, six, seven, eight, nine—really, it was _very_ dark outside, definitely not morning—ten, eleven, twelve, silence. Midnight then.

Kakashi had woken up at the first little chime as well, he wasn't one to sleep through bumps in the night. He'd lived this long, he knew better than that—he was now a healthy thirty three as of just moments ago.

"Happy Birthday, Kakashi, your present is at my house—I'll give it to you in the morning," Sakura mumbled, snuggling close to him as he wrapped his arms around her better. She was sound asleep when he gingerly disentangled himself from her to reach around under the bed, grabbing at the present he'd gotten for himself several days earlier. This one, he was sure, he'd like for much longer than he'd enjoy the custom-weighted kunai she'd gotten him. Not that he'd peeked or anything.

He'd expected the cold of the ring to wake her, but she was exhausted it seemed—she'd worked double-shifts this entire week just to ensure she was "forced" to take a day off tomorrow, for his birthday. With a smile, Kakashi put his arms around her once again—arranging her left arm so that he could see her hand, where his ring gleamed from its place on her finger.

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	7. Hurricane

Because they're shinobi after all. Can't ever let yourself forget that amidst all this fluff!

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><p><strong>Hurricane<strong>

Kakashi caused hurricanes with certain combinations of jutsu sometimes, small ones to be sure but to be caught up in the middle of such maelstroms was both terrifying and incredible.

Sakura caused earthquakes with certain combinations of emotions sometimes, small ones to be sure, but with the earth tearing itself apart beneath one's feet, the feeling was both terrifying and incredible.

So it was a miracle that nothing short of a natural disaster happened on their wedding night—but then again, they _did_ have that honeymoon-mission in that one rather unfortunate little town a few days away from Konoha. You know—the one where the local crime lord was found shredded and mashed to a pulp, surrounded by his lackeys who had suffered generally similar fates.

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	8. Talent

Hi Prescripto, much love for the reviews you've given so far :D

So I've always been bothered by some fanon portrayals of things, and one of those is that Kakashi has illegible writing. He doesn't seem the type for that to me, but whatever. Here's my smash-together of fanon and canon. Yes, I checked on the naruto wiki, lots of people Kakashi's age were promoted to Chuunin before the age of 14. So yeah.

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><p><strong>Talent<strong>

Sakura had broken her leg and was ineligible for missions until it healed—and so Tsunade had her assigned to read top-level mission reports. It was an awful, awful job. There were the ones which were too sparse in detail written by those who were her own age, the more detailed ones coming from older, more experienced shinobi. Which would have been totally awesome up until Sakura got to a report from Kakashi about a solo mission he'd returned from a few days ago. It wasn't just his particular report, but his was definitely the straw that broke her.

Instead of flying into a rage at Tsunade about the poor handwriting of the older shinobi, Sakura called in Kakashi to meet her in the miserable little office she'd been stuffed for her working-convalescence. It wasn't to accuse him, it wasn't to do anything but find out why no one his age seemed to be able to write a legible sentence.

"You called, Sakura-chan?"

"Yes," she grumped, in the midst of trying to decipher Yamanaka Inoichi's intelligence report, not bothering to look up at him.

"And?"

"Your generation has an amazing lack of talent concerning writing—and in some cases spelling it seems like!" Kakashi's hands entered her field of vision, taking the report from her. She followed the paper up, looking at his face as he read it. Her jaw went slack as he read it off perfectly, as though he'd memorized it. One serious dark eye glanced from the page to her face before softening as he set the sheet down on the desk and cupping a hand at her cheek.

"Sakura, there was a war on when I was a boy, when all of us were children. They taught you to read and write when you were five—they taught us when we turned twelve or thirteen, around when they'd promote us from Chuunin to Jounin. I taught myself when I was nine, but it wasn't like I had help or anything from my sensei." Her eyes filled with tears at the thought that children who couldn't read or write were sent into battle—only taught when they'd proved themselves to be useful. Kakashi shook his head slightly and bent down to squat easily between the wall and her desk, taking her one of her hands with his free one.

"Your writing is so very straight and beautiful, Sakura. Reading your mission reports makes old men like me smile. In those lines we can see what was achieved by having us sacrifice so much, so young." Then the tears did fall, silently and hot, down her face—some soaked into his glove where he still held her face. She let him hold her, so delicately with a hand at her cheek and another at her hands, until she got herself under better control.

"You're not all that old, Kakashi-sensei," she managed to say without too much wobbling in her voice. His eye slid shut with his smile at that.

"Well, I suppose I'm not that old compared to old Inoichi-san here—see? His writing's even worse than mine."

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	9. Lies

Just some nonsense.

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><p><strong>Lies<strong>

The lie they lived after Konoha's destruction was a necessary one. The survivors of Leaf were few and far between, and not always welcoming to former comrades. Kakashi and Sakura had to make do, trying to hide while leaving a trail for Naruto to find them by if he was still alive. They posed as lovers, starcrossed by idiot civilian social taboos against teachers becoming involved with their students—specifically civilian nonsense because shinobi stopped caring after puberty. The construction was just scandalous enough that it left indelible rumors in the towns they visited, while maintaining a certain level of secrecy.

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	10. Overwhelmed

Just something.

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><p><strong>Overwhelmed<strong>

Sakura had never felt more out of her element than she did the first morning she woke up at Kakashi's apartment. She was twenty, and the night before hadn't been anything new save for her partner. But as she opened her eyes, seeing a dusting of silver chest hair and a torso crisscrossed with a lifetime's worth of battle wounds, she felt _twenty_. The word just didn't seem to fit with thirty four, much less something seemingly more manageable like thirty. The sudden realization that this might not work out how she had wanted it to the night before hit her, and Sakura squeezed her eyes shut and curled into Kakashi's body to hide from it.

He was awake, she knew, but just laying calmly on his back with an arm around her. At her snuggle his thumb swept across her upper arm, fingers trailing. It was reminiscent of his gestures towards her on dates, a barely there touch, completely deliberate, and all for her. This was the feeling he'd spoken of fleetingly a few weeks ago, this feeling that perhaps they didn't fit together as well as she had believed. Sakura clamped down on that feeling, mentally insisting that she would overcome any barrier between them. It settled in her belly like lead.

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	11. Body

And such. And Prescripto, you hit it right on the nose in the last installment!

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><p><strong>Body<strong>

The only thing about Kakashi's life that was disorganized was his body. Patched together time and time again for nearly thirty years, his limbs and torso were a crisscross of old stitching lines, scars, and healed over burns. He wasn't as badly disfigured as Morino Ibiki, but there was a reason he rarely was seen without either his shirt or his mask.

Sakura was his trusted medic because she understood how embarrassed he was by the evidence of his numerous failures. She too never showed off her torso because of a few terrifyingly close calls, and the scars they'd left. Her red vest always came off though, leaving just her bindings, when she forced him to take off his own shirt—because seeing her scars comforted him in a sick way. He wasn't the only fuck up.

The rest of each of their lives were meticulously organized and perfect, and they only allowed each other to see the mess their professions had left their bodies—and by extension their minds—in.

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	12. Box

For funzies.

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><p><strong>Box<strong>

He'd forgone the box, which was five centimeters wide by five centimeters long by three centimeters tall, and the damn thing wouldn't fit in either his pocket, his vest, or even up a sleeve. So he kept it stowed in his glove, nestled between his palm and the soft leather inside of the thing. It would be warm and probably just a little damp from his nervous twitching, but at this point he was kind of fine with that and he was sure Sakura would be too pleased to care.

It was just a necklace after-all.

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	13. Breath

Kind of not where I'd originally wanted this to go, but whatever it's done now. Yup.

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><p><strong>Breath<strong>

Her daughter, usually a light sleeper, was deeply asleep when Sakura came home from her week long mission. Kakashi was laid out, also unconscious, on the tatami, the infant securely laid out on his chest. Eri was barely three months old, and Sakura had been pulled very reluctantly back into active missions—Kakashi babysat for her when he could (which was often as he was getting drafted by Nara Shikaku as the man's replacement in preparation for Naruto's induction as Hokage. Poor Kakashi was hardly allowed to leave the village). Her boyfriend was around her apartment a lot, it was easiest for little Eri when he was her babysitter.

He wasn't her father, no matter how much Sakura or Kakashi wished he were sometimes. Eri's father was Uchiha Itachi. He had allowed himself to be captured by Konoha forces, explaining that it was his duty as a Leaf to return the Sharingan to the village—It had come down to Ino or Sakura as the possible shinobi mothers, and in the end Ino had clan obligations which prevented her from fulfilling the mission. Sakura had had no such obligations, at least in the eyes of the committee handling Itachi's case.

The Uchiha had "died unexpectedly" when Sakura was three months pregnant, and that was when Kakashi had stepped into the sudden void she'd experienced. Itachi was to have been kept alive in order to teach the use of the Sharingan to his children—there were to be eight in all, seven with civilian mothers and then little Eri, to be made clan head when she came of age because she was both the eldest and her mother was a shinobi. But Itachi had died—either of a hidden illness or he had been eliminated, and Sakura had suddenly faced single parenthood of a child with a terrifying ability.

Kakashi was much older than her and she'd never really known him even a year ago, but he cared deeply for her and Eri and that was enough. Sakura knew she was being selfish, that there were seven other women who also had children with eyes that could turn terrifying later on, but just being able to go out on missions once again, getting out of the housewife mold the village had tried to cram her into, that was more than anything she'd ever dreamed of since she'd been asked to complete this mission.

The silver haired Jounin, still quite mysterious most days, might not have been the one to give the breath of life to Eri, but he had certainly been the one to give it to Sakura during the final months of her pregnancy as well as these last few months since she'd brought her daughter into the world. And for that, Sakura could breathe a sigh of relief and lay herself down next to Kakashi on the tatami.

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	14. Temptation

And such. Still Kakashi/Sakura but a less fluffy one about things that people argue about-like their kids' educations.

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><p><strong>Temptation<strong>

Eight year old Kasumi's parents were fighting—they didn't often fight, but when they did Kasumi gently and quietly packed her school work and went upstairs to continue studying. Tonight they were yelling, and the topic of the fight was about her. It somehow revolved around whether or not she was to be allowed to graduate when she passed the graduation exam or when she was 'old enough.'

Her mother kept revisiting the idea of 'old enough,' reiterating constantly that she herself had been qualified to take the exam at the age of nine but had deferred until she was 'old enough.' Kasumi's father had passed the graduation exam when he had been a child, no more than five, it was him who thought that Kasumi ought to be allowed to graduate when she was ready rather than be kept in the stuffy Academy for years on end.

Most of this was just what she overheard, trying to tune them out by checking over her homework once again. She didn't understand what her mother's problem was—she liked the Academy, she knew what kind of missions were assigned to Genin these days, and most of all Kasumi had her parents there to help train her once she left the Academy. Sometimes she just wanted her mother and father to agree on that much, they could fight about everything else if they would just agree when it came to Kasumi—she was tempted often to just _ask _that of them.

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	15. Ring

So here's this, enjoy it! Chapter 17 of _Samurai_ should be uploaded sometime tomorrow afternoon, too!

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><p><strong>Ring<strong>

Sakura's family crest appeared everywhere in her wardrobe—even a little black dress had a tiny patch of red fabric with a white ring sewn into the front. What surprised Kakashi the most, however, was that that white ring could be found on her garter as he took it slowly down her leg at their wedding.

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	16. World

Numbers pulled from the naruto wiki, also: KakaSaku babies because I'm a terrible writer and that's all I think about sometimes with this couple. Enjoy!**  
><strong>

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><p><strong>World<strong>

In Konoha they kept track of their shinobi by way of ninja registration numbers. To avoid the use of dog-tags or forcing shinobi to keep papers on their person to prove who they were their registration number was tattooed with special sealing ink onto their bodies in two places.

The first was on their left or right shoulder-blade depending on their gender, right for men left for women. The second was on the opposite-sided foot, on the arch, and was traditionally done after one's Chuunin exam—proof that one was a serious shinobi.

Kakashi knows that there are two thousand eight hundred and eighty one shinobi registration numbers between himself and Sakura. Her tattoos are still fairly vivid against her skin, while he has had to have his own retouched twice in the ensuing years since he got them. He hopes to live long enough to create a world where there are far fewer numbers between a man his age and a woman Sakura's—because a world where nearly three thousand children are trained for battle in fifteen years isn't one he wants to raise his child in.

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	17. Talk

Because I'm kind of bothered that it seems like _everyone_ in the village knows about Team Seven. It's a huge village everyone! Think about how many people there must be if there are enough ninja running around to dedicate an entire school to training their kids. And then you have the civilian population on top of that! Not _everyone_ will know and have an opinion on everything Team Seven. So maybe I went a little overboard in going the opposite direction, but I hope it's fun to read.

Without further ado,

Enjoy!

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><p><strong>Talk<strong>

Daichi and Fumio sat next to one another in the missions room, they had been friends since they were children. Each man had lived through many attacks on the village, each of them were proud Chuunin. They knew there were famous people in Konoha, because even famous people had to get in the missions lines to get assigned regular missions. Daichi handed out missions, while Fumio accepted reports written for completed missions, so they saw a lot of the same people between them.

They never gave missions to Uzumaki Naruto, because Naruto only accepted missions from the Hokage or another Chuunin named Umino Iruka. The boy had been on some sort of famous team—but really no one cared about who was on that team outside of…well…that team. Naruto was the hero of Konoha, not the rest of his Genin team. Or what was left of it, if rumors served.

Hatake Kakashi came through their line one day and Daichi leaned over later and told his companion that _that_ man was the Copy Nin—knew over a thousand jutsu, and that was a _conservative_ estimate. All they'd had for him that day was a CB-rank, but he had nodded pleasantly and taken the mission willingly. He wasn't above petty mid-ranking missions it seemed, and that made each of them a little prouder to be Chuunin of Konoha somehow.

When he returned his report on the mission a week later—three days later than his return to the village—he smiled all through Fumio's lecture on returning mission reports in a _timely_ manner. His eye had been droopy with something other than mission-exhaustion, and Daichi had noticed it. It wasn't sadness, it was some sort of contentment. Did he like getting lectured?

"Hey Fumio," he said in a low voice later as they filed paperwork during a lull of people in the room.

"Yeah?"

"Did you see that look Hatake was giving you earlier?"

"The 'I-don't-care-what-you-lecture-me-about-because-I-got-laid- as-a-welcome-home-present-by-my-three-months-pregnant-wife' look? Yeah, I noticed it." Fumio looked like he was trying to forget about it too.

"He's _married_?" The fact that the wife in question was pregnant went almost over Daichi's head entirely. Fumio nodded.

"Yeah, to some scary high-ranking medic nin too," he said, "and I heard she's going to make him retire when the kid is born, while she's gonna run the hospital for Tsunade-sama."

"_Sakura-san_ is Hatake's wife?" Daichi had been healed by her just a few months ago, and while he hadn't shamelessly ogled her he _had _left his address for her. It was amazing he was still alive, after hitting on the Copy Nin's wife. Fumio shot him a funny look at the weird gurgle Daichi made as he processed just how close he'd come to death.

"Well yeah. They keep it down, maybe they don't want to intimidate people more than they already do or something. But that's why his mission reports come in later than they used to, it's because he spends a day or so with her before he goes back to being serious. You ever been on a mission with him?"

"No…have you?"

"Yes, it's terrifying. _He's_ terrifying. He used to stay up all night after missions writing the report, and he'd hand it in first thing the next morning. He's really cooled it since he got married—you should be glad for that."

"Yeah. Wow…"

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	18. Fever

****Just a cute little thing. I wanted to write a little Naruto after having dunked my brain in Labyrinth for awhile (Working out a story in my head at the moment that I may or may not start writing as soon as Samurai is done(_ha! as if)_). Expect Samurai to update tomorrow in all likelihood since I want to get it updated before Turkey Day here in the US because I won't have any time over the weekend to do any writing really. And if Samurai isn't updated by tomorrow sometime, then the update will be coming at you on Monday or somesuch.

For now, enjoy!

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><p><strong>Fever<strong>

Sakura was pregnant with Aki when Kakashi caught the flu. Tsunade herself was in charge of his recovery—at least, that's what it seemed like in his feverish state—because of some nonsense that Sakura wasn't allowed to use her chakra to look after his health. Kakashi swore he could see chakra sometimes because of the fever—Tsunade's was a harsh blue-green, Sakura's was a cheery and warm color, while his unborn child's chakra was a soft white like his own.

He, even years later, could vaguely recall begging Sakura to name their baby after that bright white chakra. She had been sitting on the edge of the bed, smoothing his hair off his forehead with her left hand. Her other hand held his against her stomach, letting him feel the baby kicking. He had smiled winningly up at her and asked her quite clearly—although Sakura claimed that his smile had been rather lackadaisical and that his question had been _more_ than disjointed.

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	19. Wings

So my beta and several other people close to me or my writing often express a bit of squick that I ship Kakashi/Sakura at all. I trot out the usual arguments that hey, hey, this is a world with _child soldiers_ and so is it really so taboo for a teacher to have a relationship with a student? What Orochimaru did to Anko is more or less brushed off, and in our world that working-relationship would have been all sorts of fucked up. Basically I defend KakaSaku to people and they leave me alone because I don't attack their ships.

But my friend Cat he, well he was asking about it a little (he's not into Naruto) and something he said struck me "Have you ever written them where it _wasn't_ okay somehow?" And so I did what I do best and melded my defenses together with that. My usual "it wouldn't be weird to Konohans for a 29 year old to sleep with a 15 year old, a 30 year old to marry a 16 year old, since you know _letting children kill people kind of precludes many human squicks_" mixed with "Not okay." So this is what I got, and I am aware that it is creepy. Apologies D:

...Enjoy?

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><p><strong>Wings<strong>

They'd been married for fifty years when Kakashi passed away. He was eighty years old, and had been one of the longest serving members of the Konoha shinobi force in history—having been forced to retire at the age of sixty eight, making him just a hair younger than Sandaime-sama had been when he'd passed away. He had never been Hokage, he had never been the supreme captain of the ANBU, he had never been a foreign diplomat, but still hundreds of people had sent her letters of condolence or had appeared at his funeral. Today was the first day that she could have a few moments alone with her deceased husband and her memories.

Sakura was sixty-six, and sometimes felt like she could barely remember a life without him. He had been there for her for more than fifty years, and one day he was gone. Sitting in the cemetery, counting out fifty of his favorite flowers—peony—she wondered if somehow things would have been different. She had been fifteen when he'd slept with her, and sixteen when he had married her. He had made so many of her decisions for her, somehow, that she wondered how she was supposed to be her own person now.

It was far too late, really. She thought on Tsunade's face when Sakura had told her she was going to give up all foreign missions, choosing to focus on working in the hospital. She was just shy of her sixteenth birthday, and was preparing to move in with Kakashi. He wanted children, and wanted her to be safe, for them to have a mother. It had never occurred to her then that he was manipulating her simply because she lacked experience and clarity of her goals.

Those had been the words Tsunade had said to her softly even as she signed over the field-termination papers. That Sakura was giving up more than she realized, just because she lacked experience and clarity of her goals. Tsunade's words had quickly been forgotten. Raising a family had quickly become her new priority, as Kakashi gave her ten children to look after before her thirtieth birthday and it was only because an eleventh would have killed her did they stop.

Looking at the flowers piled on his headstone, Sakura moved to trace his name with her fingertips. He had been a good man, an excellent husband and a loving father. Everything she had ever wanted, it seemed sometimes. She _knew_ it was messed up. She _knew_ that he had taken advantage of her when she was fifteen and terrified of growing up—they'd had a terrible fight about it twenty years ago now, but what was the point, he'd said, of fighting about something which was so far in the past? He had stepped into the role of teacher once more and taught her that it wasn't scary. They had never spoken of why he had done it, or allowed it to continue, or even why he had married her. The answer was, chillingly, probably because he could—he had woken up one day and realized he was nearly thirty and wanted a family, and Sakura had been there, right there, so easily directed. Perhaps the first time, when she had kissed him, had been an accident. But the rest?

She thought now, her fingers cool from touching the stone, that he had felt responsible, guilty. The emotion had grown into love soon enough, or at least obsession. Sakura herself had needed no such push, easily giving her heart to him when he asked for it. She trusted him. She had trusted him as she changed from child to womanchild, it was only logical to trust him to bring her from young to mature woman.

He had made her free to fly. So what if the wings he gave her were attached inexorably to him? That only meant that he had grounded her so she never flew too high.

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	20. Silence

So this is me experimenting and viewing Kakashi as an asexual man. So yeah. Also probably there will be a part 2 of this at some point so there's that. If you're confused about the asexual-ness please do look it up if the following doesn't explain it satisfactorily: Asexuality in humans manifests as a lot of different things, but is best explained as a zero-sexual interest in other human beings. A less apt but perhaps more accessible description is "the reverse of bi-sexual," which is rather than being interested in "both" genders, a person is interested in _neither_ of the genders. Asexuals prefer to develop deep friendships, expressing affection without sex (for most). They aren't broken and don't need to be fixed and aren't "really just gay."

Enjoy!

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><p><strong>Silence<strong>

Sakura had wormed her way into his life. That was all she could properly term it, as Kakashi had seemed to passively resist her at every turn. Her biggest obstacle so far had been getting him to cuddle with her on the couch, and before that it had been getting him to lace his fingers between hers properly. He had never really dated anyone with the amount of patience she had, he admitted, for a long time. The admission was enough for her efforts to seem worthwhile.

She found out the reason it had all been so hard one afternoon. They were sitting side by side, on his favorite branch in her favorite tree, leaning back against the trunk. He was holding one of her hands while he held his book with the other. Occasionally he laughed. Sakura was used to this, but today her curiosity got the better of her.

"Why do you laugh sometimes, when you're reading?"

Kakashi colored a little bit and coughed. He was embarrassed for reading smut—obviously.

"I, uh, well, sometimes the turn of phrase is just…Here, read it." He disentangled his hand from hers and handed her the book. Sakura couldn't be sure but it felt like he had purposefully distanced himself from her, just a little bit.

The page he had been reading was nothing but the worst smut put to paper—the prose was downright royal in its purple.

"The way he's written it, you mean, right?"

"No, the actual…I just think it's…I don't _do_ the things—I mean to say it's just…it would never occur to me to do that…" Kakashi abruptly stopped, exasperated in the search for what he really wanted to say. He closed his eye and took a few deep breaths, while Sakura felt that the orange book in her hands weighed more and more.

"I've been a ranked shinobi since I was six years old, and at a critical time in my development I followed every shinobi rule to the absolute letter…I don't touch people except to give praise or to murder them, and what little downtime I have in my life I choose to spend in meaningful company with the few people left to me. I also maintain a healthy, solitary relationship with my pillow. I don't _live_ that life described in these books in the least—I read them for the plot," _sure you do_, Sakura thought, "I laugh at the parts I could never imagine doing with another person. Now," he took the book out of her hands, not seeming to notice how heavy it had gotten, "I have to go home and take care of my plant. I'll see you tomorrow for lunch." And with that he disappeared, leaving Sakura gaping after him.

_Never imagine doing with another person?_ She stood up and channeled her chakra to her feet so she could walk down the tree trunk. She would have to ask Tsunade-shisou about it, the woman had to know what was wrong with Kakashi.

Kakashi meanwhile walked through the village wondering if he'd done enough to explain to her. She probably thought he had some disorder that she could cure. Because she was a medic, and she fixed things—it wouldn't matter to her that he didn't feel like he was all that broken. She'd file it under "Kakashi is lying about an injury," in her mind, especially when he had just vomited out all the reasons he himself had meditated on of just _why_ he was like this. They weren't even really _real_ reasons, they were just reasons that could logically explain something which was illogical.

How does a sane male war-hero with an attractive partner not want sex of some sort? Completely psychologically damaged, of course, must be added to his files as a medical flaw. Like his unnatural eye.

He didn't even know what a best-case scenario was with what had just happened, he thought as he let himself into his apartment. He damn well knew the worst-case, which was Sakura leaving him and what they had because he couldn't provide her with something she had been pushing for since day one. It didn't exactly make him feel less of a man, that he couldn't provide for her—she was a capable person, after all, and could _and had_ provided for herself in many ways for years—but it did settle oddly on him. He liked her around, he could see retiring someday and living out his days with her.

But, he thought as he slumped into his couch, unlike his friends, he didn't envision a family, or wild nights, or _anything_. He imagined long afternoons like the one he had just cut short, or maybe going to the orphanage and volunteering there. But…most shinobi chose either celibacy or made room for _families_—if they were going to be bogged down with emotions and everything, they were going to "get" something out of it. But Kakashi didn't want that 'It' whatever _it_ was.

Sakura ambled around the tree for several minutes after Kakashi had left. He had been as embarrassed and twitchy as Shikamaru and Chouji had been in the months after finally admitting to themselves and everyone else that they were in a relationship despite Chouji's on-again-off-again relationship with Ino and Shikamaru's with that girl from Suna. But…that hadn't really been what Kakashi was trying to tell her.

After a bit of thinking, Sakura sped towards the medical library that had been nearly her home years ago. There was a book there, and it would know the answer which is what her first medical training had been about—knowing where to look something up, and she didn't want to burden Tsunade-shisou with all of her questions. It was probably already in his file, but it felt less invasive to read about it in a book. If she was correct, she had already probably ruined everything. She tried not to let it nag at her.

She had been right, she found when she finally found the damn thing and looked it up. Classic signs. Trust a genius prodigy to have an orientation which less than three percent of the population had. Sakura groaned and drooped down to the table. She tried not to cry. He must have been so uncomfortable, but he was so nice that he never said anything about it. They were still in the stage of things where she was beginning to think of bigger picture, grander terms like marriage and family but without any heft behind the thoughts.

It was just that she couldn't seem to pick men also interested in those things _with her_. But she had to apologize, it must have been just awful to spend time with her. No wonder he hadn't wanted to kiss her!

People had fights, he knew, and people got over them. So he made sure he was on time for their lunch-date—they had to work out their strange argument today, because she worked for the next several days and he was due to go on a mission two days from now. This was probably their last true day off together for a while.

Sakura showed up at his place at eleven thirty, like they'd planned. But she blushed when she saw him, barely able to make eye contact. His hand suddenly felt empty and he realized that she hadn't reached to take his hand—was she really that mad at him? Normally she sulked a little, but at least took his hand. It was weird, because she usually initiated it, but he took her hand and laced his fingers with hers. He liked these little things, though it had taken a long time to get used to them. Most people he had ever dated hadn't stuck around long enough to make him hold hands with them.

They walked to the small place they'd settled on, a little restaurant they both liked. Well, Sakura liked just about anything, but their pickled plums were to die for she claimed. Kakashi was happy with how the cook prepared his fish, and couldn't complain. He usually didn't, there wasn't much in his life that complaining would change. Normally when they walked, Sakura grabbed his forearm with her free hand and nearly curled around his arm. Other times she would walk just a hair closer to him so their shoulders brushed. But today he felt less like she was walking with him and more like he was tugging her along.

Sitting down across from her, he had to let go of her hand. Her cheeks colored again. After the waiter had brought them water and coffee for her while he had tea, he had to know. It was too weird, and he wanted to know what he had done to upset her—it was obviously him, he wasn't dumb.

"Sakura, what's wrong?" he stretched one of his hands across the table, uncertain if that was what he was supposed to do. Really, he wasn't good at this. Sakura's eyes fixed on his hand while her lips worked for a silent moment.

"I'm sorry," she said softly. Kakashi's shoulders tightened. She was breaking up with him—he couldn't help it, but those words were the ones that had preceded his last two break-ups, it was hard to believe that Sakura wasn't doing the same.

"I didn't know, I mean…I should have. I _know_ you, and I should've known. It must have been awful, and I'm sorry," she wouldn't look up at him, but she did reach her hand out towards his and just barely touched his skin. Kakashi reacted like lightning, grabbing her hand and wound their fingers together. Her hand was warm against his, and he liked it. It was nice, and probably what he liked most about seeing her—her hands were always strong and warm.

"Sakura…just what are we talking about?" her eyes flew up to look at his face for a moment before settling to the steam coming up from her coffee cup. Their waiter appeared once more, breaking both of their efforts to concentrate. Kakashi ordered fish, and she ordered the same automatically—she never ordered fish, but couldn't look at the menu properly because Kakashi wouldn't let go of her hand.

"I…I looked it up, because I felt like I knew and I wanted to be sure, and I'm sorry. I've been pushing you and pushing you and just ignoring why I needed to at all," she was definitely breaking up with him, and Kakashi wondered for a moment which of them was supposed to get up and leave in a huff in a few moments. He didn't _want_ to break up with her, but if that was what she wanted he would deal with it.

"I can't help that I'm heterosexual and—" _wait she thought he was gay?_ _What?_ "—you can't help that you're heteroromantic."

_What._

For the first time she made real, deliberate contact with him on her own, hesitantly laying her free hand on top of where he held hers tightly. Kakashi was _more_ than thrown.

"It's something I think we can work out, if you're willing to deal with me," she said with a little smile, looking up at his face.

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	21. Cold

So um yeah. This has been something I've had written for a while now. I just didn't feel like it was worth posting, as it is obviously part of a larger story than is told here. But with how much of my effort is directed towards _Samurai_ and that I'm also trying to direct towards school, I just don't have the effort left in me to try and tell the rest of this story here. The plot bunny is dying, for all that it fascinates me, and I feel like it is better to get it up and out before I accidentally ruin it or something. And besides, once I'm done with _Samurai_ I'd like to get back to _Insurance Comp__any Ninjas_ or the potential spin-off of _Samurai_ that I'm plotting maybe doing once I finish with it.

This was also written such a very long time ago that you can still see the "post-Pein's-invasion" dystopia that every Naruto writer and their freaking grandmother trotted out when Danzou was being all Evil Overlordy. I felt it was overdone at the time, and that fics which cling to it as their major backbone are a bit silly these days. I mean, come on.

Also you can see my personal theory that Kakashi's family is originally from Kumo, which is...yeah. That is basically my head-canon for the man.

Well, without further ado,

Enjoy!

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><p><strong>Cold<strong>

Kakashi had nursed her back to health after the attack on her life by ROOT agents. She was the only healer in Konoha who was probably capable of reviving Tsunade, and so Danzou had ordered a hit on her—Kakashi had saved her life that night but only barely. He'd taken them to Kumogakure under the strictest secrecy, to tell the Raikage of the problems brewing in Konoha.

They'd been given quarters—a bedroom, bathroom, studio-style kitchen-living room, a typical shinobi residence—in the Raikage Tower. It was there that Kakashi worked the poisons out of her chakra system and rehabilitated atrophied muscles. She fell in love with him then, although he had gently told her that she was likely only misunderstanding gratitude after a near-death experience.

Although by the following summer he couldn't deny that he felt something for her as well. Sakura wasn't bothered that he _wouldn't_ say he loved her—she knew that he just didn't say things like that. They got married that fall, their wedding officiated by the Raikage and his personal staff—and with that they formally renounced their Konoha citizenship as well as their ranks as Konoha shinobi. They took on Kumo citizenship, and were each evaluated as being Jounin level shinobi within the Kumo rosters.

They hadn't wanted to, but there was a mass exodus from Konoha of good shinobi and their families as Danzou and ROOT tried to take over the village. Tsunade had been smuggled out eight months before by Shizune and Yamato. She had established a small village just inside Kumo territory, and was working with Naruto as well as the Raikage to build that village into a worthy shinobi village.

It was at escapees from Konoha's urging that the other four nations started a war against Danzou's regime. But Kakashi had decided that the Konoha he loved had stopped existing for a long time, and Sakura was inclined to agree with him.

The winters were cold in Kumo and the fierce winds stung her cheeks, but she made up for that by wearing a mask when she went out in public. They moved out of the Raikage Tower and lived with distant relatives of Kakashi's—they were his father's great-aunts and uncles, and they were thrilled to finally meet Sakumo-kun's son. At the first few family dinners they'd had, Sakura had realized that Kakashi's Kumo blood showed quite strongly. He, who had been one of the lightest haired people in Konoha, had nearly _sooty_ hair compared to these people. The light blues, reds, yellows, and greens present in Kumo made Sakura herself feel normal as well. All of Kumo seemed to agree with her far better than Konoha—or at least that's what she told herself.

"So, Sakura-san, how did you and Kakashi meet?"

She glanced over at him, asking what she should say. Kakashi cleared his throat a little and politely answered for her.

"I was her Genin-sensei a few years ago. But we really saw each other for the first time when we came to Kumo."

There was a long silence at the table and Sakura wanted to drag her hand down her face—Some countries, she knew, fiercely disapproved of mentors becoming romantic with those they worked with. Some of the old men frowned at Kakashi while the women looked at Sakura herself with pity in their eyes. Finally a woman a little older than Kakashi spoke up.

"How rude to her family not to suggest an engagement at the time! Unless you are attached to another, there is no reason to spend that much time around a woman without at least acknowledging that you are proud enough of her to allow her into your family. Her mother must have been _horrified."_

"Yes, Kakashi, what would your father think?" an ancient old man said, his voice hoarse with age and disuse. Sakura decided to come to Kakashi's rescue.

"Actually I was a poor student at the time. I learned well enough but had no drive towards better application of technique—I voluntarily left Kakashi's training and sought a new teacher in Tsunade-shishou, the Godaime Hokage. I wasn't anything to be proud of when I was thirteen." There was a reign of silence over the table. Sakura decided not to educate her new relatives about the fact that one: age of consent in Konoha was fourteen, and two: sensei were not allowed to pursue romantic relationships with their students until their student had either studied with them for five years or was over the age of seventeen—whichever came first.

"But you are now," Kakashi said, taking her hand and smiling a little as he spoke.

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	22. Lock

Not much to say here. Written on a bit of a ...dark... lark, I mean, come on, Sakura got stabbed in the abdomen with a poisoned blade once upon a time and I'm sure Kakashi's been in the same way. Is it that too much of a stretch to think that they each would have some injury that left them unable to have kids? Just a passing thought.

Enjoy!**  
><strong>

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><p><strong>Lock <strong>

When Sakura found out she was infertile, she was tempted to bury the information. She was tempted to lock it up tight where no one would see her failures. She was all of sixteen, and she knew that that day was not going to be the hardest in her life. Someday she would have to tell a guy that she could never have kids with him, that they'd have to adopt.

Not that adoption was hard in Konoha, it was actually fairly easy with the number of orphans generated by missions gone awry, wars, etc. But it still worried her, whether or not she would lose someone she loved for the simple fact that she couldn't have children.

When Kakashi was told he was infertile it didn't affect him at all really. There was no one he planned on sharing the information with, and so he felt no real need to make it a big secret that he could never have children of his own. It was because of an injury which had gotten infected, he'd been told when he woke from a several weeks' coma. Everything still worked, he was just going to shoot blanks the rest of his life. He had been perhaps twenty, twenty two. He didn't expect to ever get in a relationship, but he figured he'd tell them at least. Best not to get their hopes up.

When Sakura and Kakashi started dating, they each tried to tell the other about their condition. After a few botched starts, Kakashi managed to finally spit it out—he was embarrassed to tell his medic-girlfriend, especially because now that it came down to it he wouldn't have minded having a kid with her. If it came up, of course, he would never ask her to give up her career or anything. Sakura had stood in front of him, her mouth hanging open a little bit before she launched herself at him, her words blurring together as she told him that she likewise was unable to have kids.

It was certainly a strange bond to form a relationship with, but they were locked together by their strange fates and couldn't have been happier when years later they adopted a little boy who refused to call them anything but "Kura," and "Kashi,"—they couldn't and didn't even want to convince him to call them Mother and Father.

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	23. Drink

****Not much to say about this one other than I wanted to do something fun because my brain is made of mush. Also, next chapter of _Samurai_ is done and going to be uploaded soon so there's that. Anyway... Enjoy!

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><p><strong>Drink<strong>

Contrary to popular belief, Tsunade didn't teach Sakura how to drink. It was Hatake Kakashi one night somewhere in Wind Country when he too found out that the Godaime hadn't corrupted the girl at an early age. Well, it was never too late to start—and the Copy Nin set about getting the sixteen year old properly drunk.

Also contrary to popular belief, Sakura was the one who took advantage of a more than tipsy Kakashi—just because she'd never felt called to drink didn't mean she hadn't researched all of the necessary anti-inebriation jutsu. It was all part of a grander plan to get the older man to loosen up around her and finally maybe admit that he liked her.

The widening of his eye as he realized just what she'd done was kept strictly between the two of them, however.

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	24. Promise

So this has been on my harddrive for a little while now. When I originally wrote it I almost wanted to not use it for the 50 prompts because I thought it had a lot of potential. Either because _Samurai_ has eaten all of the potential for my other stories and plans or it just wasn't mean to be, here it is. Because I've personally come to think that if Kakashi ever settled down with anyone he would be the one to stay home with their kids. Just my thoughts on it. Also: I totally stole the sleeping in the closet thing from _Munich_, that one Adrian Brody movie. Or something.

Yes, I know that this is pretentious high-falootin' language here that has no business in creative writing. That is part of the reason it will never see itself as anything more than this baby one-shot.

So, without further ado,

Enjoy!

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><p><strong>Promise<strong>

Kakashi walked his son to school every day. He'd pulled _severe_ strings to prevent his son from being tested for shinobi aptitude at three, and once again at five. Botan went to a civilian school and rather than starting on his karate at three, he had started on violin. The strings that Kakashi had pulled had been of the "The gods so help me, I will start an international incident _as well as_ a civil war _and_ take down your oh-so-secret-organization in a _highly_ public fashion," variety. People believed him, and that was why he walked his son to the civilian school every day.

The boy was told that his mother worked at the hospital. And he thought that for a _reason_, and that was because his mother—the love of Kakashi's life, and the woman who had asked him to marry her—had pulled strings of her own. They'd decided long before Botan was born that they would raise him away from the ruthless lifestyle of a shinobi. They would homeschool him, of course, but he wouldn't be sent to the Academy—instead he would be registered as a reservist, and nothing more would be expected of him.

Kakashi had agreed to marry Sakura because she had asked. She had beaten him sparring eight years ago on his thirty seventh birthday. He'd asked what she wanted for a reward and she'd grinned in that terrifying way—he was a grown man, and grown men were such because they knew when they felt terror—before stealing a kiss. And then she'd asked him to marry her, and so he had. It was only as they planned their small wedding that they'd come to the decision that their children would be raised as civilians.

The pressure to procreate had been _immense_ after they'd announced the date to their friends and colleagues. Kakashi had been famous even before the terrible gift of the Sharingan, just as his father, mother, and grandparents had been famous in their own times. And then there was Sakura, who had been plucked out of the civilian kindergarten at five and put into the Academy based on her aptitude scores—and on top of that, her career as a kunoichi was legend. _Surely_ their children would be genius-level, high caliber shinobi from an early age. Sakura was nearly driven to having a nervous breakdown, because everyone assumed that now she would start pumping out little Hatake kids to fill the Academy with properly talented young shinobi.

He'd found her crying in his closet the night she lost it. She had been inconsolable for several agonizing minutes before managing to ask if that was what _he_ wanted her to do—give up her dreams, her career, everything she had shaped her identity around, all to be a stay-at-home-mother. Kakashi had managed to calm her down by telling her that he was already planning on retiring when they started a family—he would stay at home, not her, and with that assurance they fell asleep curled up in the closet.

Except Kakashi didn't sleep that night. He memorized a mental list of people he would pay a visit to if they ever had a baby—his children would never have to kill if he could help it. The pressure he had faced as a child had crushed him, he couldn't imagine inflicting that on his own child simply because other people thought it was a good idea, even a great one.

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	25. Strength

****Because of adventures in fish care.

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><p><strong>Strength<strong>

His girlfriend left her pet fish under Kakashi's care that winter—she was going to Suna to help train some of their medics during the part of the year she could stand. The little fighting fish came in a round bowl with a few plants in it and red pebbles an inch deep in the bottom. The fish itself was white with blue darts and splotches—a failed koi, in Kakashi's private estimation, as it could have passed for one if the blue had been orange—and a frayed, frilly tail and fins to match. The list of instructions which came with the fish indicated that its name was Hashirama, and he was to be fed twice a week and that he would be fine just anywhere.

Kakashi wasn't so sure, although for the first several weeks the fish seemed to be just fine. But then he noticed that the poor thing's fins seemed to be fraying, and that it was lethargic. If fish could be sad, Kakashi decided, little Hashirama was decidedly depressed. So Kakashi did something he would have never thought possible—he asked Gai how to care for it properly. Gai had a passion for fish which rivaled his excitement for springtime and green, and if Kakashi recalled properly his old friend had a few of these little fighting fish around his house.

He left Gai's with the knowledge that he should change Hashi's water more often, to feed him more often in smaller quantities, and that the plants shouldn't restrict his movement—oh, to keep the water as warm as possible, the fish was tropical. Kakashi's ears were ringing for days, but that just meant he could hear properly again when his tiny charge started to perk up a little. He found some white pebbles and washed them according to Gai's instructions and dropped them into the bowl, making a little white circle on the red stones already there.

They spent the rest of the winter like that, in the warm apartment waiting for Sakura to come back to them. Kakashi idly wondered if maybe he should bother Sakura about kids. After-all, he'd managed to keep her fish alive all winter, right?

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	26. Unknown

So this has actually been hanging about for a little while, I just cleaned up the end of it a little. Inspired by the fact that Gai and Lee are sometimes compared to Bruce Lee (or in my opinion Jackie Chan), and the martial arts of the Naruto universe. So there's that! I'm kind of proud of it, dorky as it is.

Enjoy!

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><p><strong>Unknown<strong>

Sakura and Kakashi had been walking down around the cemetery, hand in hand, when Gai had flickered in front of Kakashi with a challenging gleam to his eyes. Kakashi's grip on her hand didn't waver, but he did sink into his slouch just a little deeper as though shrinking away from his excitable friend.

"My old friend, we meet again. Today is the anniversary of our legendary Dragon Fight, where we fought originally as boys in the Glorious Chinese Style—and as in years past, we shall fight it yet again!"

"Gai," Kakashi drew the man's name out, his voice bored but insistent, "I'm…" he spared a long glance at Sakura, more for Gai's benefit than hers and the Beautiful Green Beast picked up on the hint. With the most obvious subtle wink she had ever seen from the older shinobi, Gai made his exit speech.

"Ah, Kakashi it seems that you are fighting a battle far more perilous, with far more at stake, than a retelling of our most Youthful past together. I will fight you yet again on another day in June, as the sun is climbing to high noon—I wish you luck with your current mission!" and with that, the flamboyant and talented Jounin flickered away as quickly as he had come.

Sakura didn't even ask, she just smiled as Kakashi tugged on her hand to walk on. A blush showed on the tops of his cheeks and his ear, and Sakura could just barely detect his embarrassed smile. His generation had some of the dorkiest people running around. Him included.

It was several days later that she _did_ ask, once she figured Kakashi had lived it down in his own head. They were out for a walk once again, out to the forest so they could do some running up in the trees. It was sunny, but the morning air was still cool.

"So…I've never heard of anyone in Konoha who knew Chinese style, let alone the _glorious_ Chinese style. I've only seen it in movies from Kumo. I didn't even know it was real."

Kakashi scratched the bridge of his nose and pointedly looked away from her for a moment before squaring his shoulders and looking her in the eye.

"It is. It is real, it's just…" a huff of a laugh escaped him before he rushed on, "When Gai and I were teenagers—barely—he challenged me to a bout. Not sparring, a bout. This was a fight to unconsciousness. He was trying to cheer me up after the death of a friend, it was more than a year after I got the Sharingan."

"And?"

"Well, he was spouting off about this new taijutsu style he'd learned and that I had better have both eyes open otherwise I'd never see him coming. So I obliged him, and the eye just copied everything he did—I lost for most of the fight because the Sharingan can't copy moves into the future, but at a slight delay. Every year since then, we fight again just for old time's sake."

"Show me, teach me or whatever—I want to see this Glorious Chinese Style in person."

"Show you or teach you, they're different—People who've never fought against it get pretty beat up, people who want to learn it just want to get pummeled on purpose, and I'd rather not do that if you just want to see it—you learn too fast and punch too hard." Sakura laughed and tried to elbow him, a move which Kakashi deftly avoided.

"Well, no, get in touch with Gai and have your fight and I'll come root for you or something—if it's okay for me to watch, that is." Kakashi rubbed the back of his head and then slung his arm over her shoulders. She wrapped an arm around his hips in response and they adjusted their gaits to match one another.

"Yeah, I think that would be okay. Maybe Gai won't beat my face in too badly this year if you're there—and if he does, then you can fix it all up," her boyfriend finished with a smile.

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	27. Candle

****This is mostly because it has been (slightly) kicking around in my head for awhile. It is related to **_Ch19: Wings_**and a recent reviewer said that it could even be expanded upon. It can, yes, but not into a large story like _Samurai_ or _To Kill a Certain Man_, really. It can be a few little one-shots like this one. There is another that I wrote, which I'll be posting in the next day or so.

Please enjoy!

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><p><strong>Candle<strong>

His mother was lost and alone without their father, Sakumo could tell. They all were, to tell the truth, even Sakumo at forty nine was floundering a little. His father had been a rock for their family, as well as for many in the village and out of it—Hatake Kakashi had lived through and fought in more wars than was anyone's fair share, and had lost enough people that his wisdom was nearly always sound. No one had depended more on that advice and wisdom than Mother, however.

They all knew, from a row which had happened when they were all in their twenties—Sakumo had been almost thirty—that Father had perhaps tricked Mother into marrying him. She had been sixteen, the age of Sakumo's youngest brother at the time, and it was generally understood that that age was far too young to be making decisions like getting married. Father hadn't seen it like that, however, and had never truly clarified that view with Mother until then. They'd been married for more nearly thirty years, by then, and while Father showed his age—sixty—in the wrinkles starting in earnest on his face and cheeks, Mother had still been youthful and bright.

Somewhere in Sakumo's heart there was a tiny piece of him that was irked with how Father had won that argument—it had just been _so long ago_ that "couldn't Sakura forgive him?" and "what was the point of even fighting about it at this point?" It reminded him of why his wife Sumiko's parents had stayed together as long as they had—_for the kids_. Mother and Father were married, why change it so late in the game?

Sakumo didn't often revisit his thoughts on his parent's marriage, or how his father had encouraged him to have children earlier in life than he himself had. Sakumo just _didn't._

Besides, it was a moot point now. His father was dead, and he had his mother to look after. His poor mother who had always made her own choices and decisions and had the confidence that should anything go awry, she had Father to fall back on. Father was dead now, and so Mother had no one to catch her when she fell. All of the children she had with Father were a poor substitute for him, and her numerous grandchildren—and a few great-grandchildren, reminded her of her late husband's strong personality and appearance constantly.

Sakumo tried to take care of her as he could, and tried not to fret as his mother rapidly grew frail and brittle without the shade and nurturing of his father. Whatever the situation—more than fifty years ago—that had brought them together, both of them had grown to depend on one another. It pained him, but did not surprise him, then, that his mother Hatake Sakura died before her sixty eighth birthday. She only made it sixteen months, a candle sputtering at the end of a wick.

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	28. Ice

****Last of the triptych (or so I think) relating to **_Ch.19:__ Wings_**and _**Ch.27: Candle**_and is from Kakashi's point of view. Not everything is here, only the catalyst-y bit of it. From _**Wings**_**** this would take place after Sakura has kissed him and expressed an interest in him and just slightly before he slept with her. I'm not sure I'll write more from this, as unhappy KakaSaku bothers me because there is just so much unhappy stuff in Naruto that I turn to fanfic to usually have happy things happen to my favorite characters.

Also, **_TJ Dragonblade_** if you're reading this, I love all your work to pieces and am heading off to review it post-haste :D

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><p><strong>Ice<strong>

It should have settled like ice in his chest when he put together what he had done, but it didn't. They'd gone out to see the fireworks with Naruto, as a team once more. Their blonde teammate had quickly gone to get food and play some of the games when the beginning show was over, leaving Kakashi and Sakura alone on the hillside. The bugs rustled through the grasses, and the wind gently sifted through both of their hair. In the moonlight, the town was bleached almost white on the rooftops and smoke from the earlier fireworks floated thick and slow towards the Hokage mountain.

The night was hot and humid and Sakura had her red vest zipped halfway down to allow herself a little ventilation, and her boots were cast aside for the moment. Kakashi took off his own Jounin vest and toed off his own boots, his thin long-sleeve shirt clung to his back and the sleeves were pushed up to the elbows. He had laid back, flat on the ground, with his arms splayed out so his hands supported his head. It was nice out, sitting in the moonlight with a beautiful woman who liked him and was comfortable with him.

To Kakashi, Sakura was an adult. She was an adult who was capable of making her own decisions and of expressing her wants and desires and her opinion. However, he wasn't sure that anyone else knew this and respected it about her. And she was a _young_ adult. Kakashi well remembered how he had been pressured into ANBU shortly after Minato-sensei had been killed. He'd been a young adult as well, and had sorely needed someone to look out for him. He would look out for Sakura, and in such a way that no one would be able to push her around.

He was going to clip her wings, because the landscape of being a shinobi—especially such a smart and talented kunoichi such as Sakura—was a frigid one right now. Little birds like her shouldn't be exposed to the icy winds that he had been, and so that night Kakashi seduced her out on the grassy hill in the moonlight. He told her, and himself as well, that he loved her and would never lie to her again like he had in years past.

He would shelter her from the storm that was the Jounin exam or maybe the mission where she lost every teammate. Kakashi also knew that Sakura would have the same Achilles' heel as her teacher, how she was at risk of losing her nerve in the aftermath of tragedy. So he resolved for that to never happen to her, or at least if it did, to not live life as bereft of comfort as Tsunade-sama did. Yes, it was for a selfish reason. He wanted her eyes to always sparkle with innocence and sweetness, at least for as long as he would have to look into them. Kakashi didn't want to see the ice that was in his heart to ever rim her bright life.

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	29. Farewells

**Farewells**

Team Seven had always been bizarre, Anko observed as she watched Kakashi-senpai say his goodbyes to his team. First came Naruto who was exuberantly listing just how much ramen Kakashi would owe him if he were late returning from the mission. Then there were Sai and Tenzou (Anko agreed with Kakashi, that man only had one name and it was _Tenzou_) who smiled in that awkward "I totally know/remember how to smile," why that had Naruto (and Kakashi) cringing a little as they bowed to one another. And then there was Sakura.

Recently the girl had been getting closer to Kakashi-senpai—something that Anko had shamelessly encouraged her towards and bullied Kakashi into taking it like a man—and today was certainly an _interesting_ development. Anko privately wondered how much she should sell this latest scene to Jiraiya-sama for—she had no problem ogling lovers and naked women and was also still allowed at half the bathhouses in Konoha, the man had to get his sources from _somewhere_.

The lanky, awkwardly tall Copy Nin took a hesitant step towards Sakura before crossing fully towards her and taking her in his arms, while the pink haired young woman reached up and peeled the man's mask downwards, hiding half of his face with her hand and pulling him downwards to hide the rest of his face with her own. Both shinobi breathed deeply into the kiss a few times, just barely coming up for oxygen and if Anko had been a lesser woman she would have looked away in warm embarrassment.

Instead she whooped and whistled, causing the rest of Team Seven to shift uncomfortably and get warm, embarrassed feelings on her behalf. The cheering seemed to egg Sakura on as she gave a little hop and wrapped her legs around the Copy Nin—a move that wouldn't have worked unless he'd caught her, which he did—and kept kissing him. Only when Anko started actually clapping did the two part, staring deeply into one another's eyes.

"Come back soon, okay?" Sakura's voice was so soft, it was as though she were trying to hide her words from a half dozen highly trained shinobi or something. Anko's smiling grew wider, hands akimbo on her hips, her stance accomplished if nothing else.

"I think I can do that," Kakashi said with a dazed smile as he put his mask back up on his face.

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	30. Fire

**Fire**

There was a fire inside of Kakashi that he often failed to let others see. It burned inside of him, white hot, constantly. It kept him going, burning his heels if he ever slowed, ever faltered. It was fueled by the deaths of those he had loved, those he had cared about, and grew only brighter and stronger when he cut more wood for it—other people added it, but he was the one who carefully carved out friendships with people, he was the one who let them get close.

The fire roared, hungry, desperate to consume them as it had so many others.

Kakashi didn't let it, of course, unless he absolutely had to. He knew that it wouldn't sputter and die, even if no wood was added for years on end.

Sakura found out about this fire herself when, after she nearly died on a mission, Kakashi threw himself into his work. He took missions as though sitting on the couch and stroking his fingers through her hair was painful to him. She wasn't one to be kicked around, she wasn't one to be ignored—and she had asked him why he was so intent on avoiding her. She had made sure to mention that the punishment of silence on his part was that she would leave him. If he refused to be around her, there was no point in seeing him romantically anymore, was there?

Kakashi had confessed that he had been terrified of losing her, and that he worried that he hadn't been doing enough to make the world they lived in safe, that he had almost lost her as a warning. He'd told her about the fire, and how he knew, just _knew_ that if his memories of her were ever added to it he would die in the flames rather than outrun their wrath.

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	31. Red

Hi my KakaSaku fans, sorry for the heavy Sherlock ficcage of late. I'm kind of taking a break from my Naruto stuff because finishing Samurai and the Oni Girl was just such a relief, a weight off my shoulders, that I just didn't want to see Kakashi or Sakura's face again for a little while. But I will be updating this old thing periodically as I get my groove back on :)

Enjoy!

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><p><strong>Red<strong>

Kakashi's sharingan had finally gone blind shortly before his fortieth birthday. Sakura was the one to gently cut the nerves from it, so that he wasn't afflicted with migraines so intense that he was unable to work. It was strange to look into his eye and remember seeing the scarlet iris, the black tomoe, the changes the eye had gone through as Kakashi had obsessively improved the adopted eyeball to it's full potential. The eye looked fairly normal now, as black as Kakashi's natural one, even though Sakura knew it would soon start to gray over and fade to white—it was a dead eye, after all, living tissue rendered useless by trauma and age.

He had tripped around the village for a few days, unused to complete blindness on his left side—before he had moved with the confidence that came with two eyes, but now he only had one. Sakura had elected to stay by his side for the most part, slipping her arm through his left one. He allowed it because it was less embarrassing to have his old student latched onto his arm than it was to run into lightpoles or the edges of buildings. At least, that was what she surmised must be the reason.

What Sakura didn't know was that Kakashi was faking it. And he was faking it in the hopes of this exact thing happening.

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	32. Formal

So yeah. I explained a bit over on the onionna tumblr blog why I've been doing other stories for the moment. Check there for more updates.

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><p><strong>Formal<strong>

Kakashi was Sakura's date to Ino's wedding. The flighty Yamanaka girl was marrying Mr. Serious—or Morino Ibiki as everyone else in the village called him. They'd met in the intelligence department, and while Yamanaka Inoichi lamented the fact that his daughter was marrying a man fifteen years her senior, he could find no fault with the man himself. But Ino had insisted that it was _totally normal_ for these things to happen and had bullied Sakura into backing her up. And then Sakura had bullied Kakash into backing _her_ up.

He had agreed, but only if she wore traditional formal civilian clothing—weddings were strictly civilian in his mind, and he wasn't about to show up wearing formal attire while she arrived in whatever she threw on for the day. Sakura had been in a bind, and had gone along with his bizarre request. The kimono she wore was stifling, leaving her no room to breathe and her skin felt itchy and hot—made worse by Kakashi's warm hand at her back.

She'd been rewarded at the end of the night, however, by Kakashi as he stole a kiss from her as they left the reception. He'd even taken his mask off and everything to do it, too.

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	33. Forgotten

And with that I'm gone for at least the weekend :)

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><p><strong>Forgotten<strong>

If you had sat him down and forced him to watch _Hook_, Sasuke would have scoffed at Peter Pan's memories of trying to return home. Unless, however, you had then taken him to look through Haruno Sakura's window as she packed her things in preparation of moving out. She was, you see, going to go live with her boyfriend.

Her boyfriend was a man fifteen years her senior, a man who was generally well-thought of and believed to be in possession of a fine head on his shoulders. The civilians tut-tutted, but civilians always did that. _Teaching children to kill? _Tut-tut. _Stealing information for money? _Tut-tut. _Former teacher having completely fun and completely consensual sex with a former student who was of legal age? _Tut-tut.

Civilians did a lot of forgetting, too. Mostly forgetting who kept them safe for the most part.

But Sasuke would have been horrified that _Sakura_ had forgotten _him_.

Somehow in his mind, he would murmur, he had thought she would always be waiting for him. That she would grow old waiting for him, for dreams that would never come, for children that would never grow. He hadn't accounted for Sakura, and the fact that she lived not in a vacuum but a maelstrom. She'd found Kakashi, their former teacher, to cling to in the midst of it and she had hung onto him for dear life. Or so it seemed.

And she had so literally and completely forgotten Sasuke that she did not pack up his picture for her move. She didn't even really _see_ it on her final sweep around the room to see if she'd forgotten anything.

Sasuke found this all out, of course, in a cold bar in a forgotten country of forgotten importance. He was listening in on a conversation between two kunoichi from Fire who had trained with Sakura once upon a time. They were talking about the new Hatake baby, and wasn't Sakura-san just _so cute_ with the little baby girl in her arms? It didn't take a genius mind to fill in the rest.

He'd been forgotten. Utterly.

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